KANO BOMBING: PLOY TO BREAK UP NIGERIA - SENATE, JNI •Igbo oppose mass burial

THE Senate has described the bomb on a motor park in Kano, on Monday, in which scores of people were killed as a manifestation of plans by some people to destabilise the country.

Some senators also noted, with mixed feelings, the alleged indifference of Kano State Government to the incident which left several other people injured.

Raising the matter through a point of order at the plenary, Senator Uche Chukwumerije said it was sad that more than 24 hours after the attack, the Kano State government had neither issued an official statement condemning the incident nor send any condolence message to the families of the victims.

Stating that the latest bomb attack was ethnic and religious motivated, he said Kano State government, by its apparent indifference, had lost the opportunity to isolate terrorists as a tiny part of the mainstream of the society.

Chukwumerije said 80 per cent of victims of the attack were Igbo, adding that the remaining 20 per cent were also southerners who came from different ethnic groups.

He said families of the victims had rejected mass burial for their departed relatives and demanded that their corpses be released to them for quiet and private burial.

He said the issue of insecurity was threatening the national unity, advising the Federal Government to double its efforts at tackling the menace of terrorism, which he said needed to be effectively tackled with a sense of discipline.

He noted that deaf ears were turned to earlier alarms raised over possible attacks on heavily populated areas, such as motorparks.

He said efforts should be intensified to avert the danger of disconnect between the Nigerian State and its citizenry, advising that the government should not play into the hands of terrorists whose agents were freely walking on the streets.

Also speaking on the matter, Senator Kabiru Gaya said forces behind the recent killings were practically working against the unity of the country.

He also said that government was allegedly not doing enough to curtail the menace of terrorism. disclosing that residents of Kano now live in fear.

Noting that residents no longer live in peace or freely move about, he said school pupils were now staying at home on Tuesday, because of fears of being attacked following the invasion of a school which led to the killing of teachers in Maiduguri, Borno State.
“Are we saying we don’t have government? Are we saying Nigeria is becoming a failed state?
“We must take a decision. It is our responsibility to take a decision in this chamber and it must be binding on the government,” he said.
He alleged that some people were working to divide the country and advised the Federal Government to dialogue with Boko Haram and grant amnesty to its members.
Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu thereafter called for one minute silence which was observed by the senators in honour of the dead.
Ploy to set North in crises —JNI
Also, the apex Muslim organization, Jama’atu Nasril Islam (JNI) has said that the bomb attack on a motor park in Kano seemed like a design to set the entire North in crises and by extension, the whole Nigeria starting with Kano, after witnessing relative peace in the region.
The JNI under the leadership of the Sultan of Sokoto, therefore condemned in the strongest terms the bomb blast.
Secretary General of the JNI, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aiyu, said in statement issued to journalists in Kaduna on Wednesday, that the new trend of bombing at a motor park and the killings that ensued on innocent people is disturbing and alarming.
“Similarly, the shot at a female Police Officer, a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in Kano, Kano State on Tuesday, 19th March, 2013, is also condemned. We therefore, call for calm and restraint. The situation is very worrisome, and calls for more concerted efforts and strategies of averting such ugly situations,” the JNI said.
The body also called on governments at all levels to as a matter of urgency nip in the bud future re-occurrence and the perpetrators of these barbaric acts be brought to face the wrath of the law, adding that “human lives are sacred and must be treated as such in line with the teachings of the revealed books.”
Igbo oppose mass burial
Meanwhile, the Igbo community in Kano, on Wednesday, opposed a supposed planned mass burial for their kinsmen who lost their lives during last Monday’s bomb attack.
Accordingly, they have asked the authorities to release the bodies to them following claims by some of their relations that they could still identify a few of them by their attires.
There was a claim earlier on Wednesday by the non-natives that the authorities moved in a truck into the Murtala Muhammed Hospital at dusk on Tuesday to evacuate the bodies preparatory to giving them a mass burial.
However, a spokesman for the non-natives and president of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Kano State chapter, Chief Tobias Michael Idika, insisted that the bodies should be released to the Igbo community, so that they could be conveyed to their various communities in the South-East and buried according to Igbo customs and tradition.
He also asked the federal authorities instead of the state government to deal directly with the families of the victims on measures aimed at cushioning the effect of the tragedy on the people.
He explained that the suggestion was informed by the need to avoid a reoccurrence of what happened during a similar incident in the past when some kind gestures from well-meaning individuals, corporate organizations and the federal government did not to get to those affeced.
Meanwhile, the three days of mourning declared on Tuesday by the non-indigenes resident in Kano will come to an end today (Thursday).
Apart from offering prayers, the Igbo traders were directed to keep their shops locked during the mourning period.
Jonathan should resign —Tinubu
Former Lagos State governor, Senator Bola Tinubu, has said the Boko Haram were no ghosts saying the best option for President Goodluck Jonathan to have taken, is to tender his resignation letter as leader of the country over his failure in tackling  the persistent insurgency which has caused unprecedented number of death to  innocent lives and  destruction of billion of property
This is just as the former governor of Lagos said  granting  amnesty to the sect is inevitable if  we should avoid a devastating war in the country.
His words:  “I support the granting of amnesty to the sect but with some conditions which include  justice for those people with blood in their hands because it would go a long way in discouraging such dastardly act in future.
“If you called Boko Haram ghosts, what of their members that were arrested and are in various prisons? These people are human beings and through them, their colleagues can be known and talked to.
“President Jonathan can not continue to blame one Inspector General of Police (IG) after another, stressing that  it is the responsibility of the President to ensure that unity and peace prevail in the country and not divided by tribal and religion differences.”
The former governor said it is regrettable that some highly placed Nigerians are feeding on this conflict as it gives them unhindered access to the country’s security vote and would ensure that there was no end to it .
Tinubu who was in Kano to symphatise with the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Ado Bayero, the government and the people of Kano state over the attack on the royal father that kept him in London for 38 days told newsmen in a chat that the Federal government should stop playing unnecessary politic while innocent people are dying daily.
The ACN stalwart pointed out that he was worried about the sustenance  of terrorism  in the country saying the Boko Haram insurgency has dragged unnecessarily too long, suggesting that the security agents were yet to gather adequate intelligence to nip it in the bud.
Tinubu described the attack on the royal father as pathetic saying Dr Bayero symbolized unity, love and has an immense fatherly role.
He then described the perpetrators of the attack as enemies of the nation, calling on them to change.
While also describing Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso a force to reckon with, he said going by the laudable projects executed, he has demonstrated to the entire masses that he was not a governor who distributes the resource of the state for political reasons.
Kwankwaso in his response commended the former Lagos State governor for acknowledging what the present government has done so far, in terms of execution of laudable projects.
Terror attacks senseless —UK
Also on Wednesday, the United Kingdom Government described as senseless the series of terror attacks in Maiduguri and other parts of the country.
Foreign Office Minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds who made the condemnation in a statement said he was appalled to learn of another senseless bomb attack in the city of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria.
He lamented that the attack outside a bank in the city claimed the lives of more innocent Nigerians and followed the shootings at schools in Maiduguri in which a number of teachers were killed and students injured, as well as a bomb attack at a bus station in Kano.
He maintained that there can be no justification for the attacks which killed and injured ordinary Nigerians going about their daily business.
According to him, the UK will continue to support the Nigerian authorities in their efforts to counter the terrorist threat and to help bring those responsible to justice.
“I was appalled to learn of another senseless bomb attack today in the city of Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria.
“Today’s attack outside a bank in the city has claimed the lives of more innocent Nigerians and follows the shootings at schools in Maiduguri yesterday in which a number of teachers were killed and students injured, as well as a bomb attack at a bus station yesterday in Kano.
“I wish to offer my condolences to the bereaved and injured and condemn those responsible for such despicable acts of violence.

“There can be no justification for these attacks which have killed and injured ordinary Nigerians going about their daily business.

“The UK will continue to support the Nigerian authorities in their efforts to counter the terrorist threat in Nigeria and to help bring those responsible to justice,” he stated.tribune